this launch was heavily attended as it is the final night launch. and the final shuttle launch in may will also likely have a record nunber of witnesses. (i can’t imagine the traffic for that crowd.) the astronaut hall of fame was filled up early on sunday morning only to have the launch scrubbed. they honored the tickets purchased for the next morning’s launch, but we got “upgraded” to watch the launch at kennedy space center (ksc). that’s a closer spot than the hall of fame!

i surmise many who attended last night wouldn’t make it the monday morning as many have work and school on monday. but being back at ksc was definitely exciting! i had considered visiting on monday before they rescheduled the launch. it was also rare to see ksc after dark. the mirror memorial was lit up like you can only see at night.  the whole complex was up and running as if it were a normal day.

about an hour before t-zero, i set up my tripod near the shuttle simulation building.  many had camped out spaces in that area already.  more probably would have if it weren’t so cold outside.  there were cautionary conditions again monday morning as we had on sunday morning, but things cleared up enough to move things ahead.

nothing beats the spectacular scene of a night launch! it was definitely worth the trip!  i captured the launch on video however i must state that this presentation pales in comparison to seeing the sky as bright as day when it took off.  it was like daylight, like watching the sun rise very quickly.  truly amazing!

my mom has a cousin whose daughter, jill, is the engineering branch chief in the aircraft operations division at johnson space center.  in 1994, she was considered as an astronaut candidate.  but her work with the t-38s is more notable.  she helped upgrade the avionics to these aircrafts in the early 1990s.  you can read more about this and the t-38s in the june 2008 edition of the johnson space center newsletter, “roundup” [pdf].  (the pdf is a better format for reading.)  nasa tv has a clip (on youtube) of the dress rehearsal of the astronauts for sts-130.  the jets in the beginning of this video are t-38s.

with someone from nasa twittering about the shuttle launches and everyone else in the virtual world responding and posting tweets of their own, you can follow an interesting stream of chatter about the sts-130 launch at twitter’s search page.

you can watch a time lapse account of the shuttle endeavour being rolled out from the vab to the pad.  four hours shortened to to less than three minutes.

the tour also took us out to view launch pad 39A, from where atlantis launched just the day before.  in the distance, you could see the shuttle endeavour sitting on pad 39B ready for a rescue mission if necessary.  the reason for the rescue contingent is that the hubble is in a higher and different orbit than the iss.  were a problem to arise, there wouldn’t be enough resources for the iss to be a rescue option.

we saw the landing strip, which is so long you cannot stand on one end and see the other end as it follows the curvature of the earth.

as part of the tour, we were dropped off at the apollo/saturn v center where the history of the apollo and gemini missions were explained.  we saw the mission room including the actual equipment as it was when they originally used.  a replica of the apollo vehicle which is the saturn 5 rockets, the lunar and command modules, and all parts in between.  each portion of the apollo system and mission was detailed.

another stop on this tour included information about the international space station.  we walked through portions of the modules and visited the ready room where new modules being sent to the iss are tested for compatability and assembled for delivery.  we saw some of the japanese engineers who were getting ready to leave after delivering their next installment for the iss.  we also saw them testing and setting up another module for a future addition to the space station.

just got through seeing the latest bond movie.  i like how they are producing these films.  less cheese, less comic book, more action, more character development.  as long as they don’t end up back how they were making the movies before, it will continue to be good stuff.

after bond, i went to stir fry café for some sushi and to do a little christmas shopping.  and after that, i’m headed home to put up the christmas tree and watch the shuttle endeavour launch.

and that is how my half day off ends up.

my cousin (first and a half cousin?) sent me some links to photos of the shuttle taken by rod ostoski, a photographer who lives in florida.  the set of photos at the link below shows a rare scene of both the atlantis and the endeavour on launch pads a and b in the same shot.

STS-125 Space Shuttle Atlantis Mission to Hubble

the photographer has some other shuttle pictures in some other galleries if you are interested.  check out the links to his galleries at the top of his page (at the link above).